The study reports on challenges related to the use of the language of attribution in academic essay writing by Post-Graduate
Certificate in Education (PGCE) students at Rhodes University, as a microcosm of similar challenges faced by university
students elsewhere. The study content-analysed 150 essays written by 50 PGCE students taking the course ‘Language,
Learning and Cognition’ which the researcher taught. Key categories analysed were: student preferences for the type and style
of incorporating authors’ ideas in own academic essays, appropriateness of attributive words used, punctuation within the
language of attribution, tense consistencies, appropriateness of attendant lexico-grammatical collocations, attributive words’
fit with the syntax and grammar of the writer’s ideas, as well as their consonance with the spirit and intent of the citations.
Although findings point to gross challenges across all categories of analysis, they were most glaring in the matching of
attributive words with the intent of citations and in the use of proper punctuation. Chief among the study’s recommendations
is the need for explicit instruction in, and attention to, the language of attribution in university students’ essays by all lecturers
and not just those in academic literacy development.

doi: 10.15700/201409161112